Search results matching tags 'Performance', 'Humor', 'Tools', and 'Opinion'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=Performance,Humor,Tools,Opinion&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'Performance', 'Humor', 'Tools', and 'Opinion'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)2009: The Year in List Formhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2010/01/05/2009-the-year-in-list-form.aspxTue, 05 Jan 2010 18:53:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:20593KKline
<p>Before I jump onto the <a href="http://thomaslarock.com/2009/12/2010-goals-and-themeword/" title="Tom Larock - Goals and Themeword For 2010" target="_blank">Goals and Themeword</a> meme started by my buddy, Thomas LaRock (<a href="http://thomaslarock.com/" title="Tom LaRock's Blog" target="_blank">blog</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/sqlrockstar" title="Tom LaRock's Twitter" target="_blank">twitter</a>),
I decided I'd spend a few minutes looking back on both the year 2009.
(From a personal standpoint, the 00's were my most difficult decade
yet.&nbsp; Major problems of every stripe beset me on all sides and with
alarming frequency throughout the decade.&nbsp; I was all "Good Riddance"
and "Don't let the door hit y'ass on the way out, 2009!" as the ball
dropped in Times Square.)</p>
<p>Rather than spend a lot of time cooking up my own top 10 lists, I
reckoned (that's Southern for "thought", btw) I'd recap a few others
top X lists that are in the ballpark of my own personal opinion.&nbsp; I
couldn't resist putting together my own list at the end, which I'd love
to hear your thoughts on.&nbsp; In addition, <b><i>I want to hear about your Top 10 (or 5 or 3) for 2009</i></b>!</p>
<h2>Their Lists<br></h2>
<p>Time Magazine's list of <a href="http://time.com/toptens" title="Time Magazine Top 10 of Everything 2009" target="_blank">Top 10 of Everything 2009</a>
was a pretty good recap for the year on big ol' cultural touch points
like movies and music.&nbsp; I found at least one thing to agree with in
each of their pop culture lists:&nbsp; movies - <a href="http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/" title="The Hurt Locker Official Website" target="_blank">The Hurt Locker</a> - check;&nbsp; TV shows - my personal favorite for its brilliant cohesive multiyear storyline and excellent character studies, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/lost" title="Lost Official Website" target="_blank">Lost</a> - check; album - <a href="http://www.theavettbrothers.com/news/i-and-love-and-you-album-news" title="Album info for the Avett Brothers &quot;I and Love and You&quot;" target="_blank">I and Love and You</a> by the Avett Brothers - check; books (sigh - if only I had more time) included the wonderful <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Age-Wonder-Romantic-Generation-Discovered/dp/0375422226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1262723703&amp;sr=1-1" title="Amazon - The Age of Wonder" target="_blank">The Age of Wonders by Richard Holmes</a>.</p>
<p>Lifehacker's <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5437186/most-popular-hive-five-topics-of-2009" title="LifeHacker's Top 5 Hive Topics of 2009" target="_blank">Top 5 Hive Topics of 2009</a>
is a very interesting list covering lots of topics and pointing out a
lot of interesting tools that I hadn't encountered before.&nbsp; My personal
favorite among them was the <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5280976/five-best-alternative-file-copiers" title="30 seconds remaining... 20 seconds remaining... 10 seconds remaining... 37 seconds remaining..." target="_blank">Top 5 Alternative File Copiers</a>,
since the Windows Explorer copy feature reminds me of hungrily awaiting
my food in the microwave and just as the counter gets to the T-10
countdown, it goes back up to 30, then down to 8, then back up to 42,
then down to 14.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if they meant to be funny but Digg's <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/12/23/digg-stories-2009/" title="Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009" target="_blank">Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009</a> is hilarious, much in the same way that Brent Ozar (<a href="http://brentozar.com" title="That's MISTER Brent Ozar to you, bub" target="_blank">blog </a>| <a href="http://twitter.com/brento" title="Tweet Tweet" target="_blank">twitter</a>) and I were when we put on an unintentionally hilarious performance at the <a href="http://sqlinthewild.co.za/index.php/2009/11/03/pass-2009-pre-con/" title="Gail Shaw, SQL in the Wild Blog, PASS 2009 Quiz Bowl and other pics" target="_blank">PASS 2009 Summit Quiz bowl</a>.&nbsp; Go ahead - ask Colin Stasiuk (<a href="http://benchmarkitconsulting.com/" title="Colin Stasiuk's Blog" target="_blank">blog</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/benchmarkit">twitter</a>) what he thought of our performance...</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br></p>
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter"><img src="http://sqlinthewild.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/WeirdPerson.jpg" class=" " title="Colin Stasiuk, or, as Gail Shaw calls him, weird person" alt="Impressed by Our Quiz Bowl Performance?" height="336" width="448">Impressed by Our Quiz Bowl Performance?</div>
<p style="text-align:left;">Speaking of unintentionally funny, have you seen Yahoo's <a href="http://yearinreview.yahoo.com/2009/top10" title="Do you Yahoo!?" target="_blank">Top 10 Searches of 2009</a>?&nbsp;
Evidently, the median Internet user (at least from their metrics) is
hormone-laden, teenage redneck with a thing for fast cars (Nascar),
Hollywood hotties (Megan Fox), and an unassailable but secret love for
Mormon-influenced Vampires (Twilight).</p>
<h2 style="text-align:left;">My List<br></h2>
<p style="text-align:left;">I
usually try to blog at least once per week and, when I can, even more.&nbsp;
I still have this deep down urge to post lots of small blog posts of
just a couple paragraphs.&nbsp; But for some reason, I always seem to come
out with these big ol' epistles.&nbsp; Despite my verbosity, y'all still
read what I write and for that I'm very thankful.&nbsp; Over the last year,
these were my top ten blog posts according to your interest:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/05/22/microsoft-resources-too-good-not-to-share.aspx" target="_blank" title="#1">Best of the [SQL Server] Blogs</a> and its sister post <a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/07/24/great-blogs-from-microsoft-sql-server-teams.aspx" target="_blank" title="#1, Part Deux">Great Blogs from the Microsoft SQL Server Teams</a>, also my number one spam generators.&nbsp; Ever spammer on the planet seems to want their comment appended here.<br></li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/05/22/microsoft-resources-too-good-not-to-share.aspx" target="_blank" title="Numero Dos">Microsoft Resources Too Good Not to Share</a>, which I can't honestly remember if they were any good or not.&nbsp; But I bet they were.<br></li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/05/13/are-we-there-yet-mom.aspx" target="_blank" title="Dri!">Are We There Yet, Mom?</a> in which I flashback to my childhood road trip experiences when considering Microsoft's overall product strategy.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/01/15/does-the-down-econmy-have-an-impact-on-your-job.aspx" target="_blank" title="Four">Does the Down Economy Have an Impact on Your Job</a>, cuz it sure punched mine in the mouth.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/07/10/why-do-i-keep-seeing-this-mistake.aspx" target="_blank" title="Cinco">Why Do I Keep Seeing This Mistake</a>, in which I learn that "Hello World" type applications can lead to massive misunderstandings.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/05/06/microsoft-marketing-throws-sql-server-under-the-bus.aspx" target="_blank" title="Six">Microsoft [Corporate] Marketing Throws SQL Server Under the Bus</a>.&nbsp; We can't get no respect, not even from corporate HQ.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/04/07/looking-for-good-dmv-database-admin-queries.aspx" target="_blank" title="Seben">Looking for Good DMV Database Admin Queries</a>,
where you can find just about every good DMV query ever written except
those other really good ones that are posted here in the comments.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/06/23/old-performance-tuning-recommendations-die-hard.aspx" target="_blank" title="The Ocho">Old Performance Recommendations Die Hard</a>, and when I saw "die hard" I don't mean like Bruce Willis.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2009/03/10/things-you-know-now.aspx" target="_blank" title="Uh, nine">Things You Know Now</a>,
a semi-successful meme I started where I asked participants to tells us
about stuff they'd do differently if they knew it way back in the day.</li>
<li><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2007/06/28/understanding-sqliosim-output.aspx" target="_blank" title="Ten">Understanding SQLIOSim Output</a>, because no one seems to fully understand this tool, including me.<br></li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align:left;">I
excluded a few posts that were numerically in the top ten because,
well, they're my blog posts and I didn't want them in the top ten.&nbsp; So
there!&nbsp; But those that I excluded were things like reposting an
interview done by another blogger or maybe a product or book that I
plugged for some reason or an other.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I
hope you've enjoyed my blogging and found it valuable.&nbsp; Tomorrow, I'm
jumping on the themeword and goals meme.&nbsp; In fact, I'm crashin' the
party because none of my peeps called on me.&nbsp; [pout]</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Be well!</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">-Kevin</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">&nbsp;Twitter @KEKline</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br></p>
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